During his campaign for US presidency, Barack Obama has shown that he understands the smart use of Web 2.0 technologies when he was mobilizing millions of followers by using Twitter as a powerful communication platform. Since then his administration keeps pushing the use of all kinds Web 2.0 technologies in government context. Vivek Kundra, recently assigned Chief Information Officer of the Obama administration, invited the public to make sensible use of government data when launching Data.gov. The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

Tim O’Reilly, known for coining the term “Web 2.0”, Google and the Sunlight Foundation called for the “Apps for America” prize in order to push the development of Data.gov mash-ups.

The Internet has changed our private lifes, it just started to change the way corporates do business and it is turning whole industries upside down. It will be interesting to watch how it will change the way we experience politics and public administration – for sure in ways we can’t even imagine today.

Suprisingly Microsoft comes in at number four, and Wal-Mart is not far behind at number 10, companies not necessarily being regarded as innovative. But then again, both of them are being recognized for their “process,” not their actual products. So maybe Businessweek is just asking the wrong people. At any rate, congrats to Apple for topping the list (for the second year in a row).

Today’s Wolfram|Alpha is the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone. You enter your question or calculation, and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and growing collection of data to compute the answer. Based on a new kind of knowledge-based computing…

Still at an early stage and US-centric, but WolframAlpha clearly points out the fascinating direction we are heading. Watch the intro by Stephen Wolfram!

Companies are scrambling to silence errant messages while exploiting social networks

By Michelle Conlin and Douglas MacMillan

Zachary Weiner, the CEO of Chicago boutique ad agency Luxuryreach, has had quite a time in social networking land of late. Recent adventures include employees twittering about how demanding Weiner is, how hung over they feel, and how “totally not into” the client they are. Then there’s the worker and her boyfriend who are lobbing character assassinations, sexual insults, and details of their therapy sessions at each other on Facebook. “I can’t lie, I’d almost like to hear how it ends,” says Weiner. “It’s entertaining.” Read the rest of this entry »